Mauimary Beyond Transatlantic B2B &Italy Croatia, Montenegro Two Weeks land trip West Coast Portugal.

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On 4/28/2023 at 4:07 PM, Jim_Iain said:

Just found the thread an following along.     Sorry they are having posting issues as they were just behind us when we were in Bermuda.    I understand Beyond made a detour to Bermuda for a medical emergency.    When we left Bermuda we cold see them behind us.     We are in heavy seas on Apex but had headed north for Cobh and they are on a more southerly route.    I was going to ask how hard they were being hit -  We had 24 foot waves over night an bouncing around today.  

 

If they have a Basic plan they may not be able to get onto CC but I have been seeing posts from @Ex-Airbalancer on Reflection using Basic.  

Thanks Jim. I have 10 days worth of catching up on your blog!  I was so very frustrated at not being able to read or catch up. You will have a novel written by the time I catch up. I’m trying to work fast while we’re in Port today on mine. 

[hcat]

just catching up.. great review so far

 

what was the pre cruise hotel and how did you get that  corner room?

 

we will have an Infinite  veranda in AQ on ASCENT.. we can  manage with that style stateroom and  enjoy the AQ  perks..BLU and access to thermal suites

 

hope you have smooth seas and a fun cruise

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Julian Smith an absolutely fabulous saxophonist provided three great shows including an afternoon up close in the Grand Plaza. Once again a huge following. We came really early just to get a great seat in the Martini Bar. 

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Braden and James were another duo that everyone loved.  Talented and also provided some comedy at times. They also did an extra show in the afternoon.  

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Now to move on to where we are at today while I can.  On day 10 we have arrived at our first Port. Cartagena Spain. 
 

We are pretty much DIY. We did decide to started with a 45 minute mini tour on this little train to get a quick and inexpensive overview of the city w/o having to be on a bus. 
 

Later we walked the streets and found a sidewalk cafe for lunch.  Lucky for DH I’m not one to spend time in shops. I did neglect to bring a sun hat but walked by a shop and I couldn’t resist one for 10£.  One of our fav things to do us to just roam the streets. 

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Cartagena cont. 

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Mass was ready to start so just had time for a quick photo then on to lunch. After this big lunch we’re planning to skip the dining room tonight!  
 

We then walked some more and took some more photos of course. A favorite activity is to find a bench and just people watch. It’s fun to watch others pose for photos and learn some more creative ways. If you want to learn creativity just watch the young folks!   
 

 

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Stay tuned. I promise more to come. 
Mary aka Mauimary 

 

Edited May 3, 2023 by mauimary

[mauimary]

55 minutes ago, hcat said:

just catching up.. great review so far

 

what was the pre cruise hotel and how did you get that  corner room?

 

we will have an Infinite  veranda in AQ on ASCENT.. we can  manage with that style stateroom and  enjoy the AQ  perks..BLU and access to thermal suites

 

hope you have smooth seas and a fun cruise

We stayed at the Marriott Courtyard Fort Lauderdale Beach.  It was a fab room. Upgraded from a corner waterway view to the corner ocean view.  We were extremely happy of course.  
 

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Leaving Cartagena.  She plays beautifully at the Sunset Bar even blowing in the wind!   Also some fun finds we did not see on the way into the Port.  

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This Celebrity Ship is along side of us heading in the same direction. Cannot see the name.  Wonder if it’s headed to Barcelona like us? Nice to see our older Sister!!

Edited May 3, 2023 by mauimary

[NutsAboutGolf]

4 hours ago, mauimary said:

Our Infinite Veranda mid ship.  Deck 7 so rides pretty smooth. Minimal creaking in our room. 

 

Thanks for sharing!  Have a serious question, in the MDR is the Beyond serving the kids filet mignon?

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1 hour ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

Thanks for sharing!  Have a serious question, in the MDR is the Beyond serving the kids filet mignon?

I’ll try to remember to ask tomorrow. We did not eat dinner tonight after our large lunch. We only have about four kids on this cruise that we have seen!  

[NutsAboutGolf]

2 hours ago, mauimary said:

This Celebrity Ship is along side of us heading in the same direction. Cannot see the name.  Wonder if it’s headed to Barcelona like us? Nice to see our older Sister!!

 

Infinity

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3 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

Infinity

Thank you

[hcat]

7 hours ago, mauimary said:

We stayed at the Marriott Courtyard Fort Lauderdale Beach.  It was a fab room. Upgraded from a corner waterway view to the corner ocean view.  We were extremely happy of course.  
 

we've stayed  there..great location..great view from your room

 

that cafe lunch looked very appetizing

Edited May 3, 2023 by hcat

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We are back at the Port in Civitavecchia.  Sorry about the absence. Internet for CC has definitely been uncooperative for me.  A few days ago once I did a Google search for something else I could not get back in to CC to pick up where I left off.  Obviously this has been extremely frustrating. 
 

Our next Port was Marsaille. We have been here before and could decide what we wanted to do so we ended up staying onboard and making some major progress on our books and enjoying some downtime on a quieter ship. We knew we would be very busy and have a full day in Florence when we reached La Spezia. 
 

We have been trying to eat an earlier dinner so we had more evening time w/o staying up too late.  We have enjoyed our dinners in the regular dining rooms of Tuscan Restaurant and Normandie Restaurant.  Those are our favorites. We did break down and eat in the Buffet one night as we were too tired to get ready and dress for dinner. 
 

 

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Yesterday Sat (May6) we were in the Port of La Spezia.  We decided to do an excursion that gave us the bus ride and total independent time in Florence on our own.  We have never been into Florence as we have never wanted to ride two hours in each direction.  Bus excursions tend to make us a little crazy but there are times it is the only way.
  The excursion involved a stop at a leather factory which is not something like to do but at least it had clean bathrooms.  There really wasn’t anything we really wanted except I spotted a beautiful leather jacket but 1000£ was way more than I wanted to spend!  Besides we do not have room to take a jacket back.  I already brought too many clothes. 
 

We could see the temps heating up as it was showing 25.9C on the screen on the bus. 
We did get to Florence about 11am and by the time the guide got the group into the Square where we were meeting back up @2:45 it was already about 11:30.  

We found ourselves a nice restaurant that had pizza and Aperol so we were happy campers. It was in the shade and non smoking which is the kind of place we like to be. Besides pizza is quick.  A relaxing Italian dinner is going to have to wait for a time when we have more than three hours. 
 

Florence really needs to be seen on a land trip. I was here 50 years ago in 1973 as a College kid so my view was way different. I was here on a 14 day bus tour with my Mother. 
 

It’s amazing just how much one can see on foot in about three hours. We enjoyed the walk, the side streets, and some of the major sites. We didn’t have time to go into any museums but would have loved to have had time to check out some of the Cathedrals.  
 

The most annoying aspect was the aggressive hawkers who kept passing by us while sitting on a bench waiting for our tour guide to show up. How many times do you have to say NO NO NO when they are aggressively trying to get a cheap bracelet on your wrist and then no doubt try to charge you 20£ for it??  Well we are smart and gave them no opportunity even though they try to ask you what time it was causing someone to look at a watch and then boom on goes the bracelet!!!  Not us.  Sadly we saw some get taken. 
 

Here is a sample of sone of the sites we did see. 

Ponte Vecchio the only bridge in Florence to survive WWll. 
 

The Duomo Florence’ Cathedral stands tall over the city with its magnificent Renaissance Dome. 
 

Church of St Croce. It’s the burial place of Michelangelo as well as  Galileo. 

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A few views from the Tuscan Countryside from the view out of my window. 

Lots of agricultural farms and nurseries 

Your beautiful Italian marble may have originated from here. 
I love to photograph doors of all kinds 

another beautiful door

who can pass up gelato?Quiet street at the moment. 
My drink of choice on a hot day. 

Cool building. Not sure what it is but I like the texture of it. 

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More later need to jump back on board. We came out to sit in the chairs at the Port to add some more to my review. 

Ciao 😎

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It’s been really fun having Luigi as Cruise Director and hearing  all his crazy jokes. He has been very personable and so much fun.  Very interesting and fun to see some of his outfits.  Such personality and definitely a Cruise Director wardrobe. 
 

This has been the first time ever particularly since the pandemic when we have attended all the shows.  The Entertainment on the Beyond has been amazing. The best we have ever seen.   We have wanted to be there vs needing something to do. 
The musicians and groups that have played in the Grand Plaza we have enjoyed as well. Fun to watch everyone dancing.   I think we have seen the Cappachinos the most. They are a Jazz Band from Argentina. 

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Today (Sunday May 7) began very early.  We are moving to a different stateroom so we had to finish up packing our worldly belongings that were in drawers.  Everything else in the closet just stayed on hangers and left on our bed. Our stateroom attendant coordinated the move to our new room.  
We made a quick stop by Al Bacio for a cappuccino and a pastry before checking in for our new sea pass.  Apparently they used the same photo from our Transatlantic Sea Pass card as no photos were taken.  The only thing left to do was check in to our lifeboat station and that was too early so we proceeded to our new room which is a sunset balcony.  Very excited to being back in our favorite neighborhood again.

Quiet reading time finally to make some further progress on our book and a nice walk around the track w/o wind. Lovely. 
 

This was all very easy and seamless. we did not even need to fill out the health questionnaire on the app. Just had to watch the safety drill and check into the station later. 
 

We saw the opportunity to have an early lunch actually the first ones there since we we’re getting hungry and we like buffets best when we’re one of the first to get there before everyone started arriving and it got busy. Talk about a private dining room!  First drinks of the day a beer for Mr and a margarita for me. 
 

Apparently Batman is in the neighborhood. Wonder where that one is headed. 

 

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The crew of the Beyond are wonderful, hard working and so very friendly.  They were very busy with having ten sea days.

 

 One of our fav places is Al Bacio where you can find us every morning beginning our day with a cappuccino until we were introduced to the cortado (espresso and equal part steamed milk not frothed and served in a little cup).  It originated in Spain.  

 

We are very excited for part 2 of this cruise.  So more to come that is when this internet cooperates for me. I hear there are about 2800 on this cruise with 280 B2B that stayed on. 

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Monday (May8) This is where we are today. Passing through the Strait of Messina. It’s unfortunate it’s an overcast rainy light fog type of day and my photos are through a window. 

 

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Messina Sicily

Ferry crossing from Reggio Calabria to Messina